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Covid schemes lose £367m to fraud

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Pinsent Masons reports that organised crime gangs have defrauded £367m from the Covid-19 support schemes. According to the firm, the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) was particularly vulnerable, given that the basic requirement for making a claim was to file a self-assessment tax return.

Andrew Sackey, Partner at the firm, commented: ‘HMRC is now hot on the trail of those who defrauded the Treasury. It is deploying very substantial resources to investigate and prosecute those fraudsters. Many thousands of investigations into suspected fraudulent SEISS claims have already been opened.

‘There will be major fines and prison sentences handed down once those investigations are complete.’

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